A dream for the day- Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

All One Thing

As we in the U.S. celebrate the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., my mind goes back two years to the passing of one of our great American theatremakers:  Ellen Stewart.  As a close friend and collaborator of Ellen's, and as one of her "babies," it was my honor to preside at her funeral in St. Patrick's two years ago.  To remember this day I thought I would share some of the funeral homily appropriate for this day:

The first tour I took with Ellen was in 1996. We found ourselves in many places, including one country where we were not even supposed to be, because of  US sanctions.  But that would not stop Ellen, nothing stopped her.  In a dark, smokey theatre, our company of  international “La MaMa kids” witnessed something incredible.  The country where we were performing that week was in the process of partitioning: drawing and redrawing borders again and again, along ethnic lines that, just five years earlier, did not even exist.  A journalist asked a question about one of the actors in the company whose surname was obviously of a rivaling ethnic group.  Ellen, without heed of danger, in the middle of this press conference, confronted the situation head on.  She said “you know very well that with a name like that, they would never let him over the border.” And then her MaMa kicked in… and she did, as she always does, something that others would never even think of doing.  She addressed the whole room and said “Now look, I remember you all when you were just one thing… and you can all start loving each other ANYTIME you want.” 
It is entirely appropriate that we celebrate Ellen's  faith on the day when we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose vision, faith and personal sacrifice was crucial to the broadening  of the consciousness of our country, a man who like Ellen did what other people would not even think of doing.   It is entirely appropriate that we celebrate Ellen, whose vision, faith and personal sacrifice has transformed the theatre both in the United States and throughout the world. It is entirely fitting that we laugh, that we cry, that we sing, that we dance.  It is entirely fitting that we go forth to tell our stories to each other, to our friends, to the world, but that we never for a moment forget or doubt that these things really happened. 

--St Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, Jan 17, 2011

Thanks for reading. May the lives of these great people inspire you.  Next full post coming soon... the subject is on concentration.